Michigan Scrimmage Notes

How was Josh Furman? He seems to be a hell of an athlete.

Edit: Of course, thank you very much for the update.

Thanks for the update.  I was hoping to see how the QBs were looking coming out of this scrimmage and you gave a pretty in depth look.  Glad to hear that some of the young guys are coming along nicely.  At this point even having this and countdown to kickoff in the same day isn't enough.  I need the real thing.  2 weeks!! Let's GOOO!

Edit: Did you happen to take notice of how the starting CBs played or how the secondary looked in general?

Thanks for the update on the scrimmage.

I sit here grinning about your discussion of the QB's.  Hopefully, Tate will close the gap and show incredible improvement, but in my heart of hearts, I don't think that will happen.  My concern about D-Rob is that he has yet to face a game situation, but he is a very good athlete and certainly will be much improved. I still worry about his HS percent completions, but a couple of years of college coaching may be enough to give him reasonable accuracy. He deserves everything good he gets - seems to have really busted his butt..  As for DG, I did not think he would red shirt from the time I saw the spring game.  Something about 6-4, coming in early, and the attitude issues with Tate since then have made me think he will be playing some this year..

Furman was one I left out, not because I didn't think he played well, just because they all played well and it was much more difficult to single-out a defensive player than the offense. He is a hell of an athlete.

It was not meant as a slight to anyone. Everyone will be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.

thanks.  although im not sure why on earth anyone would assume Tate would be the starter when he has skipped so many voluntary workouts.

Denard showed better accuracy than Tate huh? What a difference a year makes

Who looks most likely to replace Woolfolk at Corner?

Kelvin Grady. Huh, not a name that has come up a ton. We could have a killer set of receivers this year.

T. Talbot looked good? I'm going to go ahead and assume for my sake (and so that I will sleep well tonight) that you were referring to Terrence Talbot and he will no doubt be an All-American this season. Oh, and hopefully Terry contributes this year.

I couldn't even guess who will replace T-Wolf. A lot of guys got playing time. No-one was outstanding. It was hard to evaluate the secondary because of play calling. There were probably only 2-3 deep balls per QB for the entire scrimmage. Some were over/under thrown, but nothing like the Gardner pass at the Spring game. Some of this may have been intentional on RR's part. Not many guys (aside from Hopkins and Grady) made it into the secondary. When they did, Hopkins was tough to take down. Otherwise, they really flowed well. If the corner saw the play developing to one side, they were on top of things. I wish I could tell you more in specific. My daughter wouldn't let me take notes like I wanted to.

I like hearing about all these young guys considering we will have them with us for the next 3 to 4 years still..  This team is gonna be one hell of a team to watch in the coming years i think.

Awesome to hear about M-Rob with the big interception.  He looks like a fing monster, and I want to see him dish out some pain at some point this year.

Thank you, I will sleep better tonight.

"I also think there is NO WAY that Gardner will redshirt."

 

I wasn't at the scrimmage and don't  take it the wrong way, but I really hope to NOT see another freshman at QB for a long while.

I think most people here would admit  that DRob and DG are more athletic than Forcier, but experience matters too.  I'd have Gardener RS this season, let him learn the offense, work with DRob and Tate.  We can with with both of those kids.

double post fail.

I think unless DG wins the QB position and is miles ahead of where tate and denard were last year (which i dont think is the case) DG should redshirt so he has two years to start and dominate. I really dont want to waste a year for him to ride the pine, and three years in a row with a true freshmen starting isn't good.

Lets hope that Gardner WILL redshirt...give the kid a chance to learn and develop and not implode as it seems Tate is doing. I believe our wideouts will surprise many a defense....but we need to have that time in the pocket to get those throws out

If his shoulder is still not 100% (something I suspect might be the case), that might partially explain throwing behind receivers.

Did both Gordons play well, or just one of them?

Good to hear that Gardner is progressing, but if he's clearly behind Robinson he shouldn't play unless Robinson gets hurt--and in that case, if Forcier and Gardner seem to be at roughly the same level we should play Forcier. True freshman QBs should only play as a last resort. In 2014, we don't want to be watching a bunch of young QBs struggle while thinking, "gee, we sure could have used Gardner about now."

We have 3 qbs without a redshirt.  I would hope we could manage to reshirt one of these guys this year.  There's really no reason to be tossing 3 qbs onto the field (assuming no injuries).

And thank you. Another poster tweeted that the CB's played very soft and were burned several times. Was that your impression as well? That and any further impressions on pass coverage would be appreciated.

Look, with respect to the QB's I was someone who was firmly in the Tate camp. He has more game experience, has been in some very difficult situations and has been raised to be a QB since age 4. However, the offseason has been very kind to Denard. Maybe it's because Denard worked hard in the offseason and Tate didn't. Maybe, as the Mathlete has discussed, there is a closing of the gap between QB's between year one and year two. 

The refs were calling one-hand touch for the QB's. even with this, Denard had a 49 yd run, just missing the TD (by 1 yd) because he was touched. Anyone who thinks he could have been caught has another thing coming. A touch doesn't equal a tackle.

Tate had a great TD, but it was a reverse to Grady. Grady showed good judgement in open-field and the yards were certainly earned. Tate had several fade routes for TD's that were badly overthrown.

Gardner shows just too much promise to keep him on the sideline. I would like nothing more than to have him redshirt. He made some good decisions with the pocket collapsing and dumped the ball to his back or got outside the tackles and threw it away. Great decision making for a freshman. If we need a spark, I can see him giving it to us. 

Kennedy played one series and looked pretty good, but it was against the 3's and 4's on defense so I wouldn't count it toward much. 

I rode the elevator after the game with Jamie Morris and he was just beaming. He was very happy with the day. 

great information. I'm a little surprised about Tate not being more improved than he is. I believe the offense will be very strong this year with either Tate or Denard. I worry about the secondary  though, especially in the early part of the season. I think M will win quite a few games this year (8-4) mainly because the offense will be so hard stop.

I really hope RR plays DG this year, even if it's only for mop up duty at the end of games. There is a lot riding on this season and I would hope RR pulls out all the stops in order to make this season a successful one. Anything can happen (injuries, transfers) and we need to be prepared for that. The QB position is so critical in this offense that we have to prepare for the worst.  I'd rather not start a QB with ZERO game-time experience if both Tate/D-Rob are unavailable. Give Gardner some opportunities to play this year; break him in a little bit. I think it will pay off in both the short- and long-term and improve competition throughout the year.